Having trouble choosing between Kinsta and WPEngine? I understand. These are two excellent hosting platforms that both are phenomenal and they get the job done so I know the decision on choosing the right one is not easy.
However, get comfortable because you are in the right place!
In this Kinsta vs WP Engine comparison article, we will be taking an in-depth look at both of these web hosting providers and revealing which one is best for you!
So without further ado, let’s dive straight into the article.
Table of Contents
Kinsta Vs WPEngine: The Truth Revealed
Now before we do a deep dive into each hosting platform’s unique features, the pros and cons and even the best alternatives let’s take a closer look at what each of these tools are really for.
What is Kinsta?
Kinsta is a managed WordPress hosting provider that was built for both small websites and large websites.
Kinsta was founded in 2013 and ever since then, it has been leaving an imprint on the industry. They are even the main hosting provider for some of your favorite brands like TripAdvisor, GE, Ubisoft, and AdEspresso.
Today they have over 24 data centers, over 30,000 gigabytes of traffic daily and they successfully manage over 2000 support questions every week.
All in all, Kinsta is perfect if you’re looking for a reliable method to hosting your website. Not to mention it has a ton of great features (Keep reading to see all of these features).
Related: The Full In-Depth Review of Kinsta
What is WPEngine?
WP Engine is also a managed WordPress hosting provider that goes a step further by offering an immersive “digital experience”. They provide websites with the agility, performance, intelligence, and integrations they need in order to take their business to the next level!
WP Engine was founded 3 years before Kinsta in 2010 and has since then grown to have over 120,000 customers worldwide and they successfully block over 2 million attacks every single day!
All in all, it’s no surprise why WP Engine has an award-winning team of WordPress experts who are dedicated to providing a world-class experience. (Keep reading to see exactly why WP Engine is an industry leader)
Related: The Full In-Depth Review of WP Engine
Main Difference between Kinsta and WP Engine
Both Kinsta and WP Engine do an exceptional job when it comes to WordPress managed hosting however, Kinsta is the overall better choice thanks to its amazing customer support, reasonable pricing as well as its wide range of features and options.
Keep reading to see exactly why we think Kinsta is the better hosting platform.
Ease of Use: Kinsta vs WP Engine User Interface
When choosing the right hosting platform it’s extremely important that it’s easy to use. After all, who wants to use any software product that has amazing features but is super difficult to navigate? That’s right no one.
Let’s take a look at the usability of Kinsta and WP Engine.
Kinsta Ease of Use
Kinsta provides you with an intuitive and easy to use dashboard called MyKinsta that acts as the control center for all of your sites. They place everything that you need in one central location which makes your job ten times easier.
The dashboard has 8 different tabs to navigate between, they are Sites, Migrations, Kinsta DNS, Analytics, Billing, Users, Activity Log, and Knowledge Base.
This dashboard also provides the perfect opportunity for you to track all the important analytics such as your website visits, bandwidth usage, and much more.
All in all, I am confident that you will not run into any trouble using the platform and if you do, their customer support team will be there to help you find a solution as soon as possible. (Keep reading to learn more about their customer support)
WP Engine Ease of Use
The WPEngine’s dashboard is simple and contains 4 simple tabs, Sites, users, tools and billing. I am pretty confident that you will immediately get the hang of things once you
Creating your WordPress website using WP Engine is a very straight-forward process. Once you’re signed up you will be presented to the intuitive dashboard, just enter a few details and boom your WordPress website is all set up and ready to go.
All in all, WPEngine isn’t at all hard to use and it was definitely made with the beginner in mind.
Which one is easier to use? – Tie
This round was definitely a tie since both of these hosting platforms don’t present any difficulty navigating them.
Best Features
Now that you know the usability of both of these hosting platforms let’s take a look at the features that make them two of the best-managed WordPress hosting providers in the game.
Kinsta Features
Here’s an overview of the best features that are offered at Kinsta.
- An amazing dashboard called MyKinsta that acts as the control center for all of your websites. This dashboard also displays key analytics
- Free SSL & CDN
- Automatic Daily Backups
- The ability to choose your data center
- Staging areas for testing or tweaking
- Free site migrations
- Active security protocols
- Hack & Malware removal
WP Engine Features
- Access to the Genesis framework and access to 35 premium WordPress themes
- Automated SSL certificate
- Amazing security protocols
- Staging Areas
- Free Site Migrations
- A Page performance tool
- Transferable Sites
Who has better features? – Kinsta
This was a tight call since both of these hosting providers provide all of the necessary features that are needed in order to successfully host your WordPress websites. However, Kinsta barely eases across the finish line to win this round thanks to its centralized dashboard and analytics.
Uptime
Uptime plays an incredibly important role when it comes to your website, after all you need a guarantee that your website is going to be up and running at all times!
Thankfully, a study conducted by CodeinWp showed that both Kinsta and WP Engine maintain a solid 99.99% uptime! That’s one less thing that you need to worry about.
Customer Support
Personally, customer support is a big thing for me when it comes to choosing the right hosting platform. Regardless of the platform I always need that extra hand when it comes to navigating the platform.
That being said, let’s take a look at the customer support options offered at Kinsta and WP Engine.
Kinsta Customer Support
I must say that Kinsta has an excellent customer support system in place. They don’t have level 1 or level 2 support representatives, which means all of their representatives are world-class WordPress experts.
Needless to say, they offer 24/7/365 customer service. That means if you have a problem with your website at 3:32 am on Monday morning you can just hit up the live chat and get your problem resolved in no time at all.
They also have an immersive knowledge base that is filled with every guide and technical overview that you need to solve any problems that you may have with the hosting provider. They even have a blog that contains tips and tricks on growing your WordPress blog.
Moreover, I also found it extremely interesting how they check the status of all of the sites they host every 2 minutes so if your site ever goes down the system will notify their engineers and they will begin working at solving the problem as quickly as possible.
WP Engine Customer Support
Before I begin talking about the customer support at WP Engine I have to mention that they won the Stevie Award for customer service and support.
WP Engine offers 24/7/365 customer support so that means if you have a problem with your website at 4:40 am on Christmas morning a customer service representative will come to your assistance asap.
WP Engine has a huge support center that is filled with articles and information that will help you navigate WP Engine even easier!
All in all, when it comes to customer support WP Engine will take care of all the basic problems you have as quickly as possible.
Who has better customer support? – Kinsta
Kinsta wins this round thanks to their dedication to ensuring that they have the best customer service representatives in the world who are also WordPress experts. This means that they will be able to resolve highly complex issues quicker than the team at WP Engine.
Pricing: Who has the better price?
Pricing is a huge determining factor when it comes to choosing the right hosting provider. After all, having great features is one thing but it still needs to fit into your budget. That being said let’s take a look at the pricing plans at Kinsta and WPEngine.
Kinsta Pricing
Kinsta has 10 different plans that you can choose from! I know, it’s a lot but I must say that they are reasonably priced for the features that come with them.
The cheapest plan starts at $30 USD per month for one WordPress install, up to 25,000 website visits, 10 GB disk space, and Free SSL & CDN.
The most expensive plan costs $1500 USD per month and comes with 150 WordPress installs, up to 3,000,000 website visits, 250 GB disk space, and Free SSL & CDN.
You should also note that if you pay yearly you get 2 months free which is a really good deal especially since there’s no doubt you will have the site for a year at least.
The best part? They offer a 30-day money-back guarantee!
Click here to see Kinsta’s full pricing and the plans offered.
WP Engine Pricing
WPEngine has pricing that is quite similar to Kinsta’s however, they just offer 4 plans compared to Kinsta that offers 10!
These 4 plans are the Startup plan, the Growth plan, the Scale plan, and the Custom plan.
The cheapest plan, the Startup plan starts at $30 per month which is the same price as Kinsta’s starter plan however WPEngine offers up to 25,000 visits per month which is a bit more than what Kinsta is offering.
On the Growth plan you are charged $115 per month for up to 100,000 website visits, 20GB of storage, 200 GB of bandwidth, and up to 10 sites.
The Scale plan starts at $290 per month for up to 400,000 website visits, 50GB of storage, 500 GB of bandwidth, and up to 30 sites.
The Custom plan is for large businesses that drive millions of visits every single month and the price varies depending on a range of factors.
WPEngine also gives 2 months free if you decide to purchase the annual plan.
Who has better pricing? – Kinsta
If you are generating between 20,000 to 25,000 website visits per month then WP Engine will be the better option since it allows a bit more website visits on its cheapest plan than Kinsta.
However, if you generate 100,000 website visits per month then Kinsta will definitely work out to be cheaper in the long run since for up to 100,000 visitors you will pay $100 per month with Kinsta but $115 per month with WPEngine.
All in all, this was a close tie and I wouldn’t base my decision on price alone but Kinsta edges out WPEngine to come first in this round.
Pros and Cons
Like every other hosting platform on the market, WP Engine and Kinsta have their fair share of pros and cons.
Let’s take an in-depth look at the pros and cons of WP Engine and Kinsta.
Kinsta Pros
- They offer a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.
- They have a customer team full of WordPress Experts
- They offer free site migrations
- It’s incredibly user friendly
Kista Cons
I personally couldn’t find any huge noticeable cons about Kinsta
WP Engine Pros
- They equip you with premium WordPress themes
- WP Engine is optimized to handle over 40,000 different plugins
- It’s super beginner-friendly
WP Engine Cons
- Only offers their managed hosting on shared hosting (Which isn’t much of a con since it won’t affect your website)
Kinsta vs WP Engine: Which one is better?
Well, both of these platforms are excellent WordPress Managed hosting platforms and they both are great choices if you are looking for the perfect hosting platform for your WordPress website.
However, it’s no secret that Kinsta won the most rounds and in my opinion, Kinsta is definitely a better hosting provider.
Why did I choose Kinsta as the winner? Well, it has a wide variety of top-tier features as well as phenomenal customer support and a better price!
WP Engine does not disappoint and they give Kinsta a good run for their money. That being said, I would highly recommend that you do your own research on both of the hosting providers and make the best decision for yourself.
Best Kinsta and WP Engine Alternatives
There are tons of different WordPress managed hosting providers out there but I would highly recommend that you read our article on the 11 Best WordPress Managed Providers.
If you are looking for a solid cloud hosting provider then I would suggest that you check out our article on the 10 Best Cloud Hosting Providers.
